The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake is the highly anticipated final installment of The Atlas Six series, featuring six powerful young magicians who have given up everything to come study with Atlas Blake and have access to the archive. In the last book, part of the initiation ceremony was killing one of their cohort, which they did not do. They are each out in the world, and basically on the run from a rival organization called the Forum. At the same time, they are looking to reconvene and see if their theories on the nature of time and the metaverse are accurate.
This book is a tangled web of alliances, betrayals, friendships and sacrifices. The dark forces at play are sometimes from within their group and sometimes from outside it. They all have ambition but their loyalties are always shifting. They have paired up in unexpected ways in this novel.
The Atlas Six series is a great work of speculative fiction. It’s layered with complex characters, interesting moral questions, and promises a final showdown that demonstrates the power these six wield. It wasn’t my favourite of the three book but it was worth the read.
If you loved the morally complex world of The Magicians or the intricate power plays of the first two books in the Atlas Six series, then you’ll enjoy this one too. The finale rewards fans with closure but leaves enough of the door open for you to imagine alternative endings or a continuation.
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake is a BookTok fav that I heard about in a BookNet Canada webinar. Olivie Blake totally delivers! I can see why early fans were so enthusiastic and why Tor picked up this self-published novel and re-issued it.
The six are a group of medeians (magicians) handpicked by Atlas Blakely for initiation into the Alexandrian Society, a secret society that protects the assumed-destroyed works of the Alexandrian Library.
TV show Survivor meets Harry Potter? Atlas is the reality show host?
Six are chosen to spend a year at the library in a sort of fellowship. But only five can be initiated into the society and continue on with their studies. Atlas (also a telepath), and his colleague Dalton (animator), act as the program director and esteemed professor.
The six are chosen for their outstanding abilities. Libby Rhodes and Nico Ferrer de Varona are physicists, or rather they can manipulate physical space. They are highly competitive and their love/hate relationship is clear from the beginning. Reina Mori is a Gaia (Mother Earth) figure. She can breathe life into plants, but she’s reluctant to use her powers because it’s draining. Tristan Caine can see quanta. Basically magic is visible to him. Callum Nova is an empath, a manipulative one. He can sense people’s emotions and make them feel things, which in turn makes them act according to his wishes. Parisa is an incredibly beautiful telepath. She uses her powers to seduce people into doing her will. So three with physical powers, two with mental powers, and one who can see power.
The novel is full of secrets, betrayals and seduction. Everyone is seeking power in different ways, so perhaps it’s also about greed. I loved how the story unfolds like a puzzle. Each of the characters can only take out certain books from the library. In many ways as readers we are limited in our access of understanding too.
Absolutely intriguing story.
The Atlas Six is perfect for readers who like the mystery of secret societies, the drama of relationships that unfold in intense situations, and the magic of physics, space, and time.
A beautiful story about belonging, friendship, and home.
TJ Klune deserves all the accolades this book has received and more.
A NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, and WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER
A 2021 Alex Award winner
The 2021 RUSA Reading List: Fantasy Winner
An Indie Next Pick
One of Publishers Weekly‘s “Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2020”
One of Book Riot’s “20 Must-Read Feel-Good Fantasies”
Lambda Literary Award-winning author TJ Klune’s bestselling The House in the Cerulean Sea is considered his breakout contemporary fantasy — “1984 meets The Umbrella Academy with a pinch of Douglas Adams thrown in.” (Gail Carriger)
I am happy to read more from this author. The story is cheeky, magical, and funny (yet somber at times).
Linus Baker is a caseworker with DICOMY, the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. Imagine a caseworker who shows up at places like the X-Men school. But then add the layer of ridiculous bureaucracy.
Linus is full of reports. He sits at a small wooden desk, Row L Desk 7, in a room with 26 rows with 14 desks in each row. It’s stifling. No personal items. No talking. The threat of demerits.
Then one day he is summoned to the fifth floor, Extremely Upper Management, and assigned to a highly classified assignment: visit a far-gone orphanage where only the children with the most dangerous powers are kept. Gulp.
Linus meets a female garden gnome, a sprite, a wyvern (winged creature), an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist.
There are so many great moments in this book where Linus is struggling with his interior monologue (all fear based) and what actually needs to come out of his mouth (words of support and encouragement). In the quote below he has been dragged on a forest adventure with the children. The son of Lucifer is in charge today. He’s six.
“Okay,” Lucy said, stopping at the edge of the trees. He turned back toward the group, eyes wide. “As you all know, there is an evil sprite—”
“Hey!” Phee cried.
“Lucy, we don’t call people evil,” Arthur reminded him as Theodore settled on his shoulder. “It isn’t polite.”
Lucy rolled his eyes. “Fine. I take it back. There is a murderous sprite…” He paused, as if waiting for any objections. There were none. Even Phee seemed gleeful. Linus felt the point had been missed entirely, but thought it wise to keep his mouth shut. “A murderous sprite who has a treasure hidden deep in the woods that is ours for the taking. I cannot promise your survival. In fact, most likely even if you make it to the treasure, I will betray you and feed you to the alligators and laugh as they crunch your bones—”
“Lucy,” Arthur said again.
Lucy signed. “It’s my turn to be in charge.” He pouted.
chapter 10
Linus’ job is to report back to Extremely Upper Management on the house manager Arthur and the children’s welfare. He’s to recommend either it stays open or not. What he finds is a home full of magic—the fantasy kind and the kind that’s fostered by love.
This is a fairy tale for adults and any kid wise enough to understand the nuances of prejudice.
Meg, her twin brothers, and her baby brother Charles Wallace are desperate to hear news of their father. He’s disappeared and although Mother is keeping it together for the sake of the kids, they all know she’s upset.
The answers come on a dark and stormy night in the form of Calvin, the neighbour, and three witches (women? spirits?): Mrs Who, Mrs Which, and Mrs Whatsit.
Seems that father and mother have been experimenting with space and time travel, and the 3 Mrs’s are experts in it. They take Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace into another dimension to rescue the dad.
Perfect for fans of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz.
Description: Neverwhere is one of NPR’s top 100 science fiction and fantasy books of all time. For good reason. It was published in 1997 and over the years various versions have been produced for tv and radio. But the edition I read is the author’s preferred text. It’s a bit meandering but certainly makes some of the other versions feel a tad watered down.
The general story is that Richard Mayhew is a young businessman. He’s left Scotland to make his life in London. He’s happened, by chance, into a relationship with Jessica, who is a serious powerhouse and believes she can make him into the man of her dreams. Richard is a drip. En route to a very important dinner, the recently engaged couple have their plans thwarted when they come across a street girl who is badly injured. Richard insists on being a good Samaritan, which pisses off Jessica. She leaves in a huff and later calls off their wedding. This is all inconsequential to Richard who finds himself so deep in shit that a pissed off fiancee is the least of his worries. The girl Richard helps is from the London underworld. She’s undead or whatever would best describe someone who has been alive centuries. And it so happens that she’s being chased by assassins, creepy, creepy assassins. The Marquis de Carabas, Hunter, the girl Door (who is the noblewoman Lady Door), and Richard Mayhew embark on a quest to find who killed Door’s family and who is after her. There’s magic, misgivings, murderers, angels, and a whole world under London that is richer (and smellier) than Richard can even imagine. There’s even a night market held in Harrod’s, but London Below is such a different place than London Above. If Richard is noble enough, he might be able to return to his life. In the meantime, he’s going to die trying, maybe literally.
Favourite Moment: There are a ton of great moments with Richard, and the Marquis de Carabas is one of my favourite characters, but early on there is a little moment that perfectly depicts Jessica.
Jessica stood there on the sidewalk, watching him ruin her big evening, and her eyes stung with tears. After a while he was out of sight, and then, and only then, did she say, loudly and distinctly, as unladylike “Shit,” and fling her handbag as hard as she could onto the ground, hard enough to scatter her mobile phone and her lipstick and her planner and a handful of tampons across the concrete. And then, because there was nothing else to do, she picked them all up and put them back into her handbag and walked back down to the restaurant, to wait for Mr. Stockton.
Later, as she sipped her white wine, she tried to come up with plausible reasons why her fiancé was not with her, and found herself wondering desperately whether or not she could simply claim that Richard was dead.
“It was very sudden,” said Jessica, wistfully, under her breath.
Perfect for fans of … well of Neil Gaiman obviously. But otherwise, if you like radio plays, fantasy, science fiction, bizarre plot twists, Tim Burton, this is for you.
Description: I recently watched Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell on Netflix so my next read had to be The Ladies of Grace Adieu. I remember finding Jonathan Strange a tome but The Ladies of Grace Adieu is a slim collection of fairy tales brimming with all the same magic and twists of fate. There are petulant princesses, vengeful owls, and educated, country ladies who pass their time studying magic (unbeknownst to their bumbling husbands). The Raven King makes an appearance in several of the stories, as does Jonathan Strange and the Duke of Wellington.
Favourite Moment: In the story “The Ladies of Grace Adieu”, the three women — Mrs. Field, Miss Tobias, and Cassandra — are making their way home in the dark. They happen upon Jonathan Strange, who has fallen asleep under a tree while reading his book.
“What is it?” asked Miss Tobias.
Cassandra peered into the darkness. “It is a man,” she said with great authority.
“Gracious Heaven,” said Mrs. Field. “What kind of man?”
“The usual kind, I should say,” said Cassandra.
“I meant, Cassandra,” said the other, “what degree, what station of man?”
Jonathan Strange got to his feet, perplexed, brushing straw from his clothes. “Ladies,” he said, “forgive me. I thought that I had woken in the Raven King’s Other Lands. I thought that you were Titania’s ladies come to meet me.”
The ladies were silent. And then: “Well!” said Mrs. Field. “What a speech!”
“I beg your pardon, madam. I meant only that it is a beautiful night (as I am sure you will agree) and I have been thinking for some time that it is (in the most critical and technical sense) a magical night and I though perhaps that you were the magic what was meant to happen.”
“Oh,” cried Cassandra, “they are all full of nonsense. Do not listen to him, my dear Mrs. Field. Miss Tobias, let us walk on.” But she looked at him curiously and said, “You? What do you know of magic?”
“A little, madam.”
The conversation that transpires is very funny because the three ladies practice magic. In fact, one of them is a governess and has just done away with the pesky guardian of her charges. He was up to no good, anyway. Now they are, perhaps, aware that they’ve stumbled upon Jonathan Strange, the London magician. They have quite a few arguments with Strange’s recent writings, and once they establish that he is the man before them, they take him to task. Strange confides that he agrees with them but must do the bidding of Norrell, which draws their chiding and ire. It’s a delightful taking down of the top magician by some country ladies.
Perfect for fans of Jonathan Strange, Neil Gaiman, or The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.
The hardcover (pictured above) is a lovely book, no jacket, with debossed pink flowers.
